Open Chords

Today I’d like to share one of the lessons / handouts I’ve created to work through with some of my beginner guitarists in relation to the legendary 12 Bar Blues.

When looking for lesson content to get my students building on their strumming patterns and chord changing, the 12 Bar Blues is a very useful template. In its most basic form of just 3 chords, this can be developed from the most simple rhythm of , 4 x ‘down strums’ and then adding complexity at a suitable rate.

When working with people who come to guitar playing with no experience, yet love music, this is something I have found works often, as even with Major Chords the sound of the progression is recognisable as Blues. As the students become more learned in chords I substitute the Major Chords for Dominant 7 chords and then onto more complex chords and introduce a shuffle rhythm.

The main focus for me with beginners is to get their hands and fingers moving around progressions once they know some chords, if they recognise the sounds they create then this is a great driver.

The handout below is also great for building in an awareness of strumming 4 times per bar and getting a feel for 12 bars and a turnaround. Some people pick this up instinctively but not so with all learners. I’ve found this a useful starting point!

This week in the world of my guitar tutoring I heard the cries for a chord summary on one sheet. A selection of the basic open chords on a single reference sheet. Easy to glance at and a digestible number of chords to work towards achieving.

I usually advise my beginner students to master the clean playing of these chords in order to strengthen their fingers and grasp this concept of guitar playing. We begin to learn chords. 2, 3 or 4 at a time depending on learning pace and then we work at fitting them together and learning to move between them. There’s usually a song or 5000 which we can learn in order to familiarise the process and have a bit of fun too between the aching fingers 🙂

The Open Chord sheet #1 is also in PDF format on my Free Resources page. A couple of my students are left – handed and so I’ve adapted this for them in reverse format. Anyone who is interested in this version just message me and I’ll send it on over.